Hard on equipment

I have this problem, stuff just doesn’t last very long for me. I don’t abuse it, or crash very often but I have broken just about every part on a bicycle in my nearly 20 years of racing. Because of this fact, I am known as a very good product tester since if I can’t break something then it is easily going to hold up for the average rider. I have been having a very hard time finding a pedal system that lasts me more than a few months. In 2010 I went through no less than 4 different pedal setups. I started off with a pair of Carbon/Ti Look Keo pedals that I had been using for roughly 2 years, unfortunately the spring wasn’t as secure as it once was and the bearings were shot. No fault of the pedals, they lasted plenty long for me and I was anxious to try out the new Keo 2 Max because of it’s slightly wider platform. Unfortunately, the bearings just got progressively sticky over time and even with the resistance cranked all the way down, I still didn’t feel super secure. Time to try something new and I picked up a pair of the top of the line Mavic Pedals. I was extremely happy with these pedals at first. They spun super smooth, were reasonably light, and felt very solid while clicked in, plus I liked the flashy chrome color. However, after a couple of months the pedals became sloppy and there was noticeable movement when pulling up on them while riding. Stuff like this makes me mental so I tossed those aside and went with a pair of Speedplay Zero’s that I “borrowed” from my wife’s bike. I was actually a product tester for Speedplay when they were designed way back in the 90’s and have always liked them, but had some problems with the cleats in the past. I used the Speedplay’s with no problems for a couple of months, until my wife wanted to ride her bike again, oops… Being the adventurous person that I am, I opted to try yet another pedal system. I picked up a pair of Time’s new iClic racer pedals and got them all dialed in. I was very happy with the pedal at first, I liked the way Time does it’s float with a little lateral movement at the toe, not just at the heel as most of pedals work. Now 3 months in, the bearings are getting very sticky and I am noticing some vertical movement in the connection between the cleat and the pedal when clicked in. This just won’t do, so now I am going to pick up the new Shimano 7900 pedals to hopefully race on in 2011. I have done a lot of research and the only real negatives I have read were about the price, which is relative, and that they weren’t super light. I can live with that if they hold up. Stay tuned for my review of these pedals.